How to Make Air Dry Paper Clay That Doesn’t Crack

There are few crafting supplies more versatile than clay. You can make just about anything you can dream up with clay—assuming of course that you are working with quality clay which doesn’t crack.

One of my favorite YouTube channels is Creative Mom. Her amazingly inspired fairy houses have captured my imagination. I’ve featured a number of her projects on the site as a result, like this one for turning old mason jars into fairy mushroom houses, and this one for a fairy tree house.

What blows my mind about her work is how detailed it looks at the end—but how simple her supplies are at the beginning.

Anyway, to make her projects, you need air dry clay. And unfortunately all the clay I have tried using in the past has cracked. I’ve had site visitors write in about this problem, and as it turns out, her fans on YouTube have also asked her about it. So she made a tutorial for air dry paper clay that doesn’t crack!

Video Instructions:

Materials:

100 grams of all-purpose flour100 grams of cornstarch250 grams of joint compound150 grams of school glue40 grams of olive oil or baby oil

Instructions:

1 roll of toilet paper

1. Soak the toilet paper in the warm water.

2. Squeeze out the excess water.

3. Put the toilet paper in the bowl.

4. Add the glue, joint compound, flour, oil and cornstarch to the bowl, in that order.

5. Mix everything together.

6. If the clay seems too dry, you can add more water.

It really could not be simpler! I gave this a try, and the clay was awesome—it didn’t crack at all either while I was working or while it was drying. Give it a try!